Rotimi Onadipe
What is an online job scam?
An online job scam is a fake online job advertisement that targets job seekers with the aim of deceiving them and stealing their money, personal or sensitive information. It may come in different forms e.g. inheritance benefits, refund-recovery job, counseling job, online marketing job, etc.
People who are desperately searching for online jobs are the most vulnerable. The advancement of technology has made communication easier and faster. Online job scams are on the rise and many job seekers are ignorantly falling into the traps of cybercriminals almost every day.
A recent survey by Action Fraud found that more than 67% of people search for jobs online, but they are not aware of the growing number of “fake jobs” that are available online. Over 700,000 job seekers reported losing more than £500,000 through job scams – a 300% rise over the last two years.
Online job scammers are getting more victims every day because they attract their victims with interesting company profiles, fat salaries, and other fringe benefits e.g. retirement benefits, official car, tourism opportunities, health insurance, education assistance, etc.
The safest way to protect yourself from online job scams is to always verify before you trust. We must be informed that the fact that a job is posted online and shared by different media outlets or many social media platforms does not guarantee that the job is legitimate.
Desperate scammers can spend as much as possible on advertising media to convince more job seekers in order to increase their chance of getting more victims. This is because most online job scammers invest the money they stole on advertising media.
How to protect yourself:
- Don’t be too desperate to get a job.
- Don’t pay any amount to a company to get a job.
- Don’t give gifts to anyone to get a job.
- Be suspicious if no interview is required.
- Don’t believe every job advertisement you see online.
- If the offer sounds too good to be true, be suspicious.
- When in doubt, do a thorough research through many search engines.
- Be suspicious if there is a sense of urgency attached to the job.
- Don’t allow anyone to have sex with you to influence the outcome of your application.
- Share your experience with your family members and neighbors when applying for a job online.
- Don’t provide your bank details or other personal information to anyone when applying for a job.
- Be suspicious of any employment letter that comes from a company you you didn’t apply to.
- Don’t respond to jobs posted online until you have verified the authenticity of the job.
- Beware of fake websites that were created by cyber criminals e.g. “g00gle.com” is not the same as google.com
- Take a record of every correspondence including video recordings of your conversations with the representatives of the company.
- If you have fallen victim to online job scam, report immediately to appropriate authorities and send all correspondence, video recordings or other documentary evidence to them for proper action.
Rotimi Onadipe could be contacted via onatechconsult@gmail.com